Suspected Ukrainian drone strikes early on June 6 set Russian oil installations on fire in two regions bordering Ukraine as Russia continued to launch strikes on civilian targets in several Ukrainian regions.
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A drone attack on an oil refinery in Novoshakhtinsk in Russia's Rostov region early on June 6 has caused a fire, prompting a temporary halt of operations, regional governor Vasily Golubev said.
“Work was suspended due to a repeated attack, the personnel were evacuated to a safe distance,” local Telegram channels quoted Golubev as saying.
The fire covered an area of 100 square meters, Golubev said, adding that, according to preliminary data, there were no dead or injured.
The SHOT telegram channel, citing eyewitnesses, reported that several loud explosions were heard in Novoshakhtinsk in the early hours of June 6, then fire and smoke became visible in the area of the oil refinery.
The Astra channel published a video of a large fire at a plant the Novoshakhtinsk installation.
The strike was the third on the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, which is located some 10 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Two previous attacks in March and April also temporarily stopped its activity, according to Russian media.
Meanwhile, Belgorod regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that a drone attack on an oil depot in Stary Oskol, less than 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, started a fire.
"The Ukrainian Armed Forces, using a kamikaze drone, attacked an oil depot on the territory of the Stary Oskol urban district. As a result of the explosion, one of the tanks caught fire. Four fire crews quickly extinguished the fire. The blast wave blew out the windows in the security building. There were no casualties," Gladkov wrote.
Kyiv has not commented on the reports, which could not be independently verified.
Ukraine has been subjected to incessant Russian drone and missile strikes on its civilian and energy infrastructure since the start of the war that have caused numerous casualties among civilians and huge material damage.
Kyiv in turn has increasingly resorted to targeting Russian energy infrastructure, mainly oil installations, with its own drone strikes in order to degrade the Russian military's fuel reserves.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said that its air defense systems shot down 17 out of 18 Russian drones over the Mykolayiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, and Khmelnytskiy regions early on June 6.
Separately, Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk, said that a Russian drone hit a passenger minibus in the city of Nikopol, injuring four people and triggering a fire.
Lysak posted photos of the burnt-out vehicle on his Telegram channel.